Thaindian News

Mar 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A photograph which was taken by Patti Muldowney while she and her husband, John were on vacation has sparked a new focus on the case of Natalie Holloway. Natalie disappeared while on her graduation trip to Aruba, and was last seen by Joran van der Sloot, who has managed to remain in the headlines with his ludicrous confessions about what happened to Natalie. He has claimed everything from selling her, to hiding her body after several different versions of an accidental death.

Patti and John Muldowney did not notice anything out of the ordinary as they were snorkeling off of the coast of Aruba. It was not until they got home and saw the pictures that they noticed the resemblance of what they had thought was a rock formation, to a skeleton. John said that he immediately felt that the picture was of human remains, and they thought of Natalie. “When I looked at that photo, I said, by darn, that certainly does look like a skeleton,” he told CNN’s Nancy Grace.

Now an Aruban dive team has began searching on Saturday, trying to find the exact location of the form seen in the picture taken by Patti. The initial search did not find anything, so now the local authorities are hoping that they can get the FBI to have the Muldowney’s to try and help find the specific location where the photo was shot. Ann Angela, who is a spokeswoman for the prosecution is also hoping maybe someone from the area will recognize the photo’s location and come forward. “We are a very small island with lots of people diving or snorkeling, so it’s not unusual for one of us to see an underwater picture and recognize the location,” she said.

A few experts have examined the photo and do not feel that it is actually human remains at all. Dr. Marty Makary, a physician who serves on the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland has mixed feelings about the photo. “What I don’t like about the photo is there’s no spinal cord or vertebral column,” he said. “In fact, below this roundish skull-type profile you see a curvature which doesn’t really represent a normal spinal column.”

“I do not believe that these photos represent a body,” forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht told ABC News. “I think it’s a rock formation that certainly does present upon initial perception a suggestion of a human skeletal remains, but I do not believe that it is.

What appears to be a skull “does not really fit” either a front or rear view,” he said.

Natalie’s father, Dave Holloway is not very hopeful either. “I think they’ve found the same thing other people have found in the past, rock formations.” He told reporters.